“Actually, we had a presentation at one of the high schools this morning so I was off early today.”
“Being a recruiter must be so exciting. Helping all those young people find their careers.” When the nurse smiled at him, he noticed some of her coral lipstick had smeared onto her front two teeth, but he didn’t have the heart to point it out to the former beauty queen. When it came to those holding any sort of authority position over his children, he found it best to keep them locked in as allies.
“That’s sweet of you to say. It really makes me appreciate all you school employees do to help shape the minds of our next generation.” Which was true. Luke loved his own boys, but he didn’t think he could deal with so many students and their high-energy personalities on a daily basis. He gave the woman his best get-out-of-trouble smile.
Her mascara-clumped eyelashes fluttered as best they could and he knew he’d hit his mark. She smiled back and said, “I bet the high schoolers just adore having a hotshot hero like you come speak to them.”
In Luke’s mind, being a SEAL wasn’t such a big deal. He had just been doing what he loved. Still, maybe he could ask Nurse Dunn to share her flattering insight with Officer Delgado. Not that he cared what the female cop thought of him.
“Dad?” Aiden tapped him with a one of the crutches he must have borrowed from the school nurse. “You ready?”
“Oh. Um, yeah.” After hearing the nurse explain to Caden that she only had one set of crutches, Luke carried Aiden’s backpack and watched as his injured eight-year-old hobbled in front of him on one foot. His other son trailed behind with only a slight limp.
Anytime he had a slow day at the recruiting office and thought he missed the excitement of Spec Ops, all he had to do was drive home to his children. No amount of skilled warfare training could have prepared him for the adventure that was fatherhood.
Of course, it was times like these when he wished he’d pursued sniper school. Maybe then he’d be better equipped to work without a teammate. Without a partner. Sure, he had his family for backup, but sometimes he felt so alone.
The kids climbed into the back of Nana’s Oldsmobile and then immediately turned the crutches into dueling lightsabers.
It was going to be a very long night.
“Hey, Officer Carmen, you wanna sign my cast?” Luke heard Aiden say to the long-legged curly-haired brunette wearing tight jeans and high-heeled boots. Caden rushed inside Patrelli’s Italian Restaurant to join his brother before Luke could stop them.
Crap. It was bad enough that the boys talked about their cop friend all the time, but now they were so eager to see her, they were mistaking her for random ladies in town. Albeit, a very curvaceous and sexy random lady. Luke let go of the heavy oak door and hurried over to the hostess stand to prevent his son from creating an embarrassing situation.
“Monkey, that’s not... Oh.” Luke stopped when the woman turned around.
Wow. He’d never seen Carmen wear anything besides her police uniform—something that clearly hadn’t been tailored with such a womanly form in mind—or track pants and long-sleeved T-shirts when he’d caught glimpses of her out running.
“It’s just a stupid ACE bandage,” he heard Caden say, yet the pending argument barely registered in Luke’s ears.
Double wow. The woman really had some nice legs.
“Yeah, but I’m pretending it’s a cast,” Aiden said. “Casts are cooler and way tougher.”
“I would love to sign your pretend cast.” Carmen reached for a pen off the hostess stand and bent down to write.
Luke had once been skilled at utilizing all five of his senses in any given situation, but try as he might, his eyes were the only thing functioning at that moment. And they were shamelessly staring at Carmen’s, ah, assets. She had on some type of loose, flowing, purple top, and from this angle, he could see down to where the rounded curves of her breasts met the V-shaped neckline.
He almost grabbed one of Aiden’s crutches to steady himself as a sudden wave of lust nearly knocked him sideways. Where had that come from?
When Carmen finally straightened up, Caden asked, “How can you drive your police car with those girl shoes on?”
“I promise, the next children I sire are going to have better manners,” Luke joked as he forced his eyes up to meet her face. But she must have been purposely ignoring him, because she wasn’t looking his way at all. Instead, she was completely focused on his children and smiling. Was she wearing lip gloss? And where in the world had she been hiding all those inky black curls?
“I’m not working tonight. I’m having dinner with some fr—some ladies...with some lady friends.” She waved at Maxine Cooper and Mia, who were already seated at one of the red vinyl booths. “What about you boys? I thought tonight was poker night?”
Had she remembered the invitation he’d awkwardly delivered yesterday? Probably not, since she still wasn’t making eye contact with him. Maybe she was one of those females who related better to kids.
“It is. But it’s Dad’s turn to bring the food. Hey, you should come with us. It’ll be more fun than sitting here and talking about lame girl stuff.”
See. He wasn’t the only one who’d just assumed she’d be more comfortable hanging out with the guys. But before he could say as much, his sister-in-law breezed into the restaurant.
“Aunt Kylie,” both of the boys squealed before throwing their arms around her.
“Oh, you guys are getting so big!” Kylie said. “I’ve missed you two.”
Luke felt a twinge of remorse. The boys had lived with her and Drew for several weeks and often stayed with them when Luke had to go out of town for trainings and recruitment seminars. But now that the couple had two newborns, Luke had tried to keep the boys away so they wouldn’t become too much of a burden.
“Hey, Officer Carmen, in those boots, you’re almost as tall as Aunt Kylie.”
Luke had never really noticed the cop’s height before, but in heels, she came to his chin. At least he guessed she would, if she ever got close enough to him to allow for an accurate measurement.
“My dad and Uncle Drew are both six foot four,” Aiden volunteered. “But we might not grow as big as them because Grammie said our mom was only—how tall was Mom, again?”
It took a second to realize his son was asking him a question. Then it took another second to figure out what that question was. But after half a minute, Luke realized that he didn’t have an answer.
How tall had Samantha been? She was on the shorter side, but he couldn’t recall an exact height. He could remember the way she’d cried and threatened to leave the day he’d gotten his orders to go on a three-month overseas mission. He could even remember the defeated look in her eyes when she’d gone off that night to “have a few drinks with the girls.” But lately it was getting more and more difficult to focus on the rest. No wonder Samantha used to accuse him of being emotionally unavailable.
Think, Gregson! Five foot four maybe? She was definitely shorter than the beautiful woman in front of him. He shook his head. What kind of man compared his dead wife to another woman? And what kind of father couldn’t keep his thoughts in check when his children asked him such a simple fact about their mother?
“She was five foot four,” he finally said while silently appealing for forgiveness in the event he was wrong. As well as forgiveness for the way he’d been too focused on Carmen’s long